Erekat: No unilateral declaration of Palestinian state

this will be the best option for morons like lee

will not be viable, and circumstances - geographic, political, economic, social, religious, security - are far from being ideal. United Nations resolution 242, therefore, if applied as designed, is probably the best way out. Now, all that we need is that the U.N. that passed it gather the international community, including most of the Arab sates, and demand its implementation. Mr. Barack Obama of course could help!

Please correct your address and your claims re 242. If you want peace NOW then go home to where you came from and take ALL illegal settlers with you. But do not bother coming to Europe---we dont like land thieves.

Or coverts from Africa, Australia, Germany, UK, USA, Chile etc etc, .... Can you please explain this amazing 'ancestral' concept?

i only add that the right of return to refugees who fled the terror of the Jews be garanteed and their homes and land returned.

By the year 2050, according to UN population projections, Palestinians will outnumber Israelies. Palestine has time (and a higher birth rate) on its side. In a one state solution, Israelies will ultimately be in the minority.

I agree in principle but that's a tough one for the Jewish state to even consider acceding to. There is the retention of identity issue which is a valid one. Maybe some sort of compromise acceptable to all parties but I doubt any efforts along those lines will ever be made by Israel.

There is another possibility. 2 States it has been prouved politically impossible. One state for 2 people will have Israel objecting because of demografic problems, but one federated nation with 2 states may be the solution. The only think to be dismantle it would be the barrier fences. Thenn it will have 2 states government and one federal government. Only one federated army. It will have2 states police forces and on federal police force. There will be no need to dismantle settlemnts. Everyone can choose to live in one of the 2 states obeing the federal and states law. At the present it will be the only solution available to Israel and Palestine Gerusalem may be the capital of boptth states and the capital of the nation. In any way you look a 2 states faederated in one nation look much better. Israel state will be a Jewish state while the other state will be predominantely palestinian state. Any comment about this solution?

and after 10 years have a situation a the one in Nigeria ? no thanks. Better for the jewish people to continue their struggle for complete inedependence that be submitted to muslim rules

This is the American model, it works here, but in Israel the problem would be the constitution. Israel will never amend it s constitution to give the Palestinians any rights. So the de facto will be the solution. The only change is the civil law which is applied anyway in both entities now, just make it legal. Nothing is easy out there . This is the most practical solution in the absense of two states for two people.

the arabs have their problems and they created it themselves, lost a couple of wars, revolted against King Hussein got kicked out and became Palestinians. right of return, absurd , a trojan horse to destroy a Jewish state. Jerusalem,possibly shared.

Instead of some single state that includes Israel we go for the non politically correct solution that means Jordan becomes the palestinian state and there is a way to do this that would leave virtually everybody a winner. 1) Jordan is given a nice big pay off from the international community and in exchange they give citizenship to all palestinians. 2) Israel annexes the territories and this land becomes internationally recognized as part of Israel. 3) Israel offers permament residency status to all palestinians property owners and temproy residency status to palestinians renting as they are probably not staying there in the long term. 4) Property owners wishing to leave Israeli territory and go live in Jordan they can sell their home privately or if they prefer the Israeli government would be obligated to by them out this would be an ongoing arangement the government could finance it by selling off property to developers. 5) Jordans capital is Amman so Israel can keep Jerusalem, Israel keeps the territories and nobody jew or arab needs to leave their home because they will both have a right to be there but one will be Israeli one will be Jordanian. Unlike the palestinians Jordan has a single stable & liberal leadership who can smash all terror groups and it has a peace treaty with Israel. There is plenty of land in Jordan and Jordan gets a big payout for doing nothing but issue passports and Israel gets to keep the land without compromising its jewish identity. EVERYBODY IS A WINNER now we just need to make it politically correct to consider the idea.

with their high birth rates. See how quik the (illegal) settlements grow in westbank!

Stop stealing land and resources, and get Israeli citizens back in Israel!

Good point. Which means it's up to Jordan and Egypt to determine the nature of the new Palestinian state. All settlements in the West Bank will be dismantled as a matter of course as Israel must remain within the 1967 borders.

It has been pointed out to you and your vile ilk, that Egypt OCCUPIED Gaza. It has never been Sovereign Egyptian territory. The West Bank was only annexed by Jordan as a temporary trustee.... Why do you repeat your stupid, EASILY disproven LIES?

Not going to argue alot with you, but can you please be precise on which UN resolutions you are talking about? when you mention Israel's right as a state to jewish people??? I dont know any? You need to remind us !

Kindly read it. Reading does you good

In November 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem.[19] Partition was accepted by Zionist leaders but rejected by Arab leaders

called for creation of two states- for Jewish people and for Arabs. Jews accepted the resolution and declared the state. Arabs rejected resolution and launched the war to throw Jews into the sea.

pls back up your statements with sources.

The Jews were given a larger area even though the population is nowhere near half of the Palestinians. The Zionist Jews were not innocent to begin. Back then, it was the Jews who were the Terrorists! Remember the Stern Gang? Now absorbed by the IDF. How many Palestinians and British were brutally murdered back then? How come it's not in the Media? Arabs learnt suicide bombings from the Jews. Thats a fact. The truth is, you Israelis will never learn your true history. Your education system is censored by your government.

and agree instead to the UNGA resolution 181 borders instead, as you suggest. After all, Israel took 78% of the land in '48, versus the 55% allocated for it in the UN resolution - which you want Erekat to embrace instead.

Ben Gurion stated that he didn't feel that Israel should be bound by a rsolution that only offered them 55% of the land - after all, by that time, they'd taken 78%.

I wonder what would happen if the Jewish state called Israel recognized the right to exist of a Muslim state called Palestine? Why not give it a go and see what reaction it would get from all the Arab states. And no presuppositions please. Too often they are used as pitiful excuses to retain the status quo.

and those borders haven't changed, to this day. Which makes Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot and Be'ersheba occupied Palestinian towns - as they all lie on the Arab side of the partition. When can we expect them back, please?

After all, if Res 181's reference to "a Jewish state" really was meant to define Israel as " the nation-state of the Jewish people" then it must be equally true that when it referred to "an Arab state" it meant to define Palestine as "the nation-state of the Arab people". Which must come as quite a surprise to Egypt, Jordan, Libya i.e. you end up with a manifestly absurd result. The only way to avoid that absurd result is to accept that Res 181's references to "an Arab state" and "a Jewish state" were DESCRIPTIVE, and was not meant to be DEFINITIATIVE.

It is indisputable that when Res 181 refers to "an Arab state" it is making no attempt to define Palestine as "the nation-state for the Arab people" i.e. you can only regard "an Arab state" as a DESCRIPTIVE term, but if you do that for "an Arab state" then you must also do that for "a Jewish state". But I'm curious how *you* can reconcile this problem i.e. if "a Jewish state" means "the nation-state for the Jewish people" then "an Arab state" must also mean "the nation-state for the Arab people", which absurd.

The Palestinians and the Arab League have recognised the existence of Israel and its rights to its territory. This "Jewish state" bit is in our head and not in the law which is the criterion for mutual recognition. Further, the Saudi Peace proposal, based on the borders prior to June 4, 1967 and EJ as the capital of Palestine, regcognised Israel and stated clearly that such steps taken by Israel would be an end of the conflict, with opening of diplomatic relations between Israel and all Arab nations.

Yos quotes: "proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem" Yos-logic then demands that IF "a Jewish state" defines Israel as "the nation-state of the Jewish people" THEN "an Arab state" must equally define Palestine as "the nation-state of the Arab people". Care to untangle that without tying yourself in a knot?

B: "The UN 1948 partition resolution called for creation of two states- for Jewish people and for Arabs." The first part is true - it called for two states - but the second part is false. It refers to "a Jewish state" and "an Arab state" in purely descriptive terms, and it is CLEARLY treating both states as equals i.e. the "a Jewish state" merely meant "the state with more Jews that Arabs" while "an Arab state" merely described "the state with more Arabs than Jews". After all, it wasn't up to the UN to **name** those two states, but it did need a nice shorthand way of distinguishing one from the other in the text.

borders as at time of Declaration of Independence

First to aknowledge your ignorance. in 1947 were fixed cease fire delimitation lines and no borders. Israel has borders only with Egypt and Jordan signed in peace treaties. Sto talking about borders of 1967 and sit down to discuss peace and borders

existence as a Jewish state. well most of the arab states are willing to recognize Israel in its present form as a Jewish, state. the reason is they got tired of Arafat and company, now Abbas of missing their opportunities. Losing a couple of wars also helped.

...armistice lines violated by Israel's Muslim-Arab states once they initiated the June 1967 Six-Day War against Israel, hoping to accomplish what they had not been able to do 19 years earlier: to wipe Israel off the face of earth.

This over lay is quite accurate, it is taken point by point from the UNGA Resolution. https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9Vis_gBvX6aMTMzNjg3YmUtMTQzZi00NWI2LTk3ZjctYmExMDk0YmQwYzQz&hl=en From here http://wp.me/pDB7k-tM

"..throw Jews into the sea" http://wp.me/pDB7k-ki#democracy-equal-rights

If you were Ben Gurion now you have actually captured all this extra territory, 700,000 arabs have left and you have half of Jerusalem would you say lets go back to a situation where we have 55% of the land, take back all these arabs and give Jerusalem? The only thing about this resolution that ever came into effect is that it created Israel other than than nothing happened and Israel will never get rid of the extra 23% of the land

anyways, a number of great arguments (won't name names incase missing someone) but the main point is for the Israelis and Palestinians to get to direct talks asap to agree on borders, Jerusalem and refugees. there's no qualms about this.

Palestinians aren't only Muslim, they are Muslim and Christian--Ramallah's population is 25% Christian with a Christian Mayor. There are also Samaritans, Secularists and Communists who are Palestinian. Palestine--unlike Israel--is based on nationalism, the Arab language and ethnicity, not on religion. There will eventually be a Palestinian Arab state, but it won't need to be recognized as a "Muslim" state because unlike Israel, again, Palestine is not a theocracy or based on faith.

It is in the occupied SYRIAN Heights. You and your ilk need to be sent back to whence you came. Then there cam be peace.

Although admittedly they were not angels the Etzel & Lehi mainly targeted British soldiers and military targets in Palestine they didn't go around killing arab civilians. In the 30 & 40s tensions between jews and arabs increased and there were incidents of jew and arabs killing each other the target of jewish resistance fighters were the British. The King David Hotel it was not just a hotel it was British intelligence HQ in Palestine. The jews placed a bomb in the basement of the part of the hotel used by the army & only that part, they gave telephone warnings to the British which were ignored and they gave telephone warnings to surounding buldings. When was the last time a palestinian gave a phone warning? The Park Hotel bomb that wasn't a military target like the KDH was it was a regular hotel full of guests from all over the world ( not just Israel ) who were there for the sole purpose of celebrating a Passover meal and religious service. How many busses did the jews blow up. The real fighting against the arabs didn't begin until the war of independence began when alot of arab villages were hostile and fighting against jews. The arabs certainly didn't learn the idea of suicide bombings because jews actually value their lives and want to live as long as possible they don't dream about martyring themselves. As I said in the begining the jewish groups were no angels but you compare them to palestinian terrorists and the jews look like Ghandi.

it is occupied syrian heights. Do you have a UN resolution that makes your existance ther a a citizen of the occupying power "LEGAL". Number please.